Checketts may join Goldman-Yankees venture as CEO

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Dave Checketts, majority owner of Real Salt Lake and the St. Louis Blues, reportedly is in talks to become CEO of Legends Hospitality Management LLC, the concessions, merchandising and management-services company owned by the New York Yankees, Dallas Cowboys and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation.

The source asked not to be identified because the agreement isn't complete. Checketts declined to comment. Todd Fleming, a spokesman for Legends, didn't return a message.

A group led by Checketts, former president of Madison Square Garden, would take about a 16 percent stake in the company, which was created in 2008. The Yankees, Major League Baseball's most valuable team, and the Cowboys, the National Football League's most valuable club according to Forbes annual rankings, each own 34 percent of Legends.

The 56-year-old Checketts, who is selling the National Hockey League's Blues, reportedly will acquire the Legends stake held by CIC Partners, whose founding partner, Michael Rawlings, was elected mayor of Dallas in June.

Legends last month acquired Conventions, Sports and Leisure International, which specializes in financial analysis for organizations planning to build or renovate sports facilities.

Sales and marketing clients for Legends include football's San Francisco 49ers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers; basketball's Charlotte Bobcats, Indiana Pacers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Phoenix Suns; baseball's San Diego Padres; and college football's Rose Bowl, according to the company's website.

Legends supplies concessions to Yankee Stadium and Cowboys Stadium.

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